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Subsea flowlines are flexible or rigid pipelines that are used in oil and gas fields commonly for transporting production fluids from wells. The majority of the flowlines operating in basins across the world (including e.g. Australia's 1700 km infield flowlines) are approaching the end of their productive life, and will need to be decommissioned over the next 5 decades. This paper, for the first time, investigates the potential of repurposing decommissioned flowlines to dynamically installed anchors for mooring floating facilities. Five shapes of anchor have been developed using segments of flowline. Two series of tests were subsequently carried out on models of those shapes. The first series of tests involved releasing the models in still water to assess free-fall trajectory (i.e. verticality), terminal velocity, and anchor drag coefficient. The second series of tests were carried out at 50 g in clay to investigate the performance of the anchors in terms of tip embedment depth during dynamic installation and capacity under vertical loading. The results confirmed performance similar to conventional dynamically installed anchors, suggesting that there is potential to fabricate offshore anchors using segments of flowline. • Decommissioned flowlines. • Repurposing decommissioned flowlines to dynamically installed anchors. • Verticality, terminal velocity, and drag coefficient in water. • Tip embedment depth during dynamic installation in clay. • Capacity under monotonic vertical loading in clay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper (Cu) is a widespread soil contaminant that is known to be highly toxic to soil biota. Limited information is available on the response of wild endemic species to Cu in the literature, which hinders ecological risk assessments and revegetation. In the present study, the phytotoxicity of Cu in nutrient solution was studied in five Australian endemic plant species (Acacia decurrens, Austrodanthonia richardsonii (Wallaby Grass), Bothriochloa macra (Redgrass), Eucalyptus camaldulensis var. camaldulensis (River Red-Gum) and Dichanthium sericeum (Bluegrass) and two vegetable plants species (Lactuca sativa L. ‘Great lakes’ and Raphanus sativa L.). Vegetable species were grown in a more concentrated nutrient solution. The response of B. macra was also compared between the two nutrient solutions (dilute and concentrated nutrient solution). In the first experiment, D. sericeum and E. camaldulensis were found to be highly sensitive to Cu exposure in nutrient culture. Critical exogenous Cu concentrations (50 percent reduction in roots) for E. camaldulensis, D. sericeum, A. richardsonii, B. macra (dilute), L. sativa, B. macra (concentrated), R. sativa and A. decurrens were, respectively, (μg/L) 16, 35, 83, 88, 97, 105, 128 and 186. Copper tolerance in B. macra was observed to be higher in the more concentrated nutrient solution despite the estimated Cu2+ concentration being very similar in treatment solutions. Additional short-term rhizo-accumulation studies showed that neither Ca2+ not K+ was responsible for reduced uptake at the roots. However, the estimated maximum shoot Cu was reduced from 41 to 24mg/kg in the more concentrated solution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: To identify risk equations for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in primary and secondary prevention settings that are used or recommended by health technology assessment (HTA) organizations and in clinical guidelines (CGs).Methods: A targeted literature review was conducted using a two-stage search strategy. First, HTA reviews of manufacturers' drug submissions, reports from established HTA organizations (Europe, Canada, and Australia), and CGs from countries with and without HTA organizations, including the United States, were identified. Documents published between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2016, were examined for cardiovascular risk equations, recommendations, and commentaries. Next, publications associated with risk equations and cited by HTA and CG documents were retrieved. This literature was examined to extract commentaries and risk equation study characteristics.Results: The review identified 47 risk equations, 25 in the primary CVD prevention setting (i.e., patients with no CVD history), including 5 for CVD prevention in diabetes and 22 solely in secondary prevention settings; 11 were identified for heart failure, 3 for stroke or transient ischemic attack, 2 for stable angina, and 11 for acute coronary syndrome or related conditions. A small set of primary prevention equations was found to be commonly used by HTAs, whereas secondary prevention equations were less common in HTA documents. CGs provided more risk equations as options than HTA documents.Conclusions: Although there is an abundance of risk equations developed for primary and secondary prevention, there remains a need for additional research to provide sufficient clinical and HTA guidance for risk estimation, particularly in high-risk or secondary prevention settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]